East Liberty is now home to the largest Fine Wine and Good Spirits store in the state. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board refurbished and expanded its existing store to more than 35 percent of its previous size. At 17,674 square feet, the shop (off South Highland Avenue, in the Eastside development near Whole Foods) now has plenty of space to store and sell booze.
It’s bright and airy, designed similarly to last year’s remodel of the Wexford and Monroeville stores. While the East Liberty store already had a large collection of spirits, PLCB spokesperson Stacy Kriedeman says via email that the renovated store’s selection of luxury wine and spirits has been further expanded.
One shopper, Liz Mackenzie, said that while she liked the remodel, “There still aren’t enough South African wines for me.”
As much as I dig the new look in East Liberty, I’d really love to see some of the smaller, totally outdated state stores developed into curated boutiques. Wouldn’t it be cool, for example, to see Store 0209, in Central Lawrenceville remodeled from its current 1980s Soviet Union aesthetic? Because it’s the only liquor store in the neighborhood, the state would need to stock affordable wine and spirits, too. But it would be nice to see an expanded line of Amrut alongside the Old Crow.
Kriedeman writes that the PLCB is “in the process of rebranding all of our retail locations. However, we’re doing it in the most efficient way possible. As leases come up, we do an analysis to determine if the store should be expanded, consolidated with another store, relocated or closed.”
Kriedeman says that 60 stores have been remodeled so far. The next Premium Collection store to open in Western Pennsylvania will be Oct. 16, in Murrysville. And some fine-tuning — such as fixtures for better storing high-end wine — are in the works for already-remodeled stores.
Now someone please get Ms. Mackenzie — and me — more South African wines.
This article appears in Sep 24-30, 2014.
One needs to ask why it has taken 2 and 3 years to remodel stores if they are doing it in the most efficient way possible? If you doubt look into the Mountaintop store which took 2 years or the one in Lebanon that is well over 3 years.
Of course, at the current rate all the stores won’t get done for over 50 years which is longer than it took to move from counter stores to self service (36 years) or to decide to finally take credit cards (15 years).
If you want real modernization you want total privatization.
AMEN on privatization. The only thing standing in the way of the system providing more revenue by private ownership of stores is the union for the people who work there. The whole system is a joke. Why can’t every grocery store sell beer and wine – only Giant Eagle? Something is wrong here!
The political coalition against privatization includes more than just allies of the union. For example, it also includes representatives of rural areas where private entities either would not locate a store at all, or would only locate a store with less selection and higher prices. In that sense the state store system is subsidizing those rural areas, and their local representatives do not want to give up those subsidies.
Giant Eagle and other grocery stores can use a certain type of license to sell beer and wine in an attached cafe. I believe all of Wegmans, Weis, Giant, and Sheetz have also done that in one or more stores, and more are looking at it. I believe the main problem, though, is that you have to allow in-store consumption, and that raises all sorts of cost and liability issues which serve as a practical barrier to more grocery stores wanting to do it.